Phone subsidy

[profweasel]

Has Verizon thought about breaking the phone subsidy payment out from the service monthly payment in a manner similar to T-Mobile?

[rcschnoor]

I am sure they have considered it, but they have obviously not implemented NOR stated they will implement it.

[kaybracon]

I think I'm just days away from jumping ship to a competitor because of this issue.  I've been off contract with my family plan for several months now, and I can save a little over $100/month by switching to a company that doesn't charge the phone subsidy (and I'll be going from a 3 smart/2dumb plan on VZ to 5 smart phones on the new carrier). 

Yes, I'll have to buy my phones outright, but I'm fine with using one year-old (or two years-old for my kids) model phones instead of paying for the latest.  After I sell my existing phones on Craigslist, I'll almost break even initially, and then I'll save over $2400 over the next 2 years.  I can't believe how much I'm spending per month ($230 - that's a car payment!) for something that didn't even exist 20 years ago.

I've been trying out a prepaid phone from the new company for a couple of weeks, and their coverage is just as good in my area.  Data coverage isn't as good outside of town, where I spend perhaps 5% of my time, but voice and text are.  That 5% data coverage isn't worth $100/month.

I know that Verizon could care less if they lose my 5 lines, but maybe if enough people change carriers they'll start taking notice.

[#4]

profweasel wrote:

Has Verizon thought about breaking the phone subsidy payment out from the service monthly payment in a manner similar to T-Mobile?

If they do you'll bill will go UP not down. People ASSUME that part of their bill is used to subside a phone. It's not that's a myth. But let's stick with that belief. How much? Say you get a $600 phone you pay $200 and $30 upgrade fee. So $600 -$230 is $370. $370 over 24 months is $15.41.

So basically

A) You're complaining Verizon doesn't lower your bill $15 a month after your contract is up?

B) You expect Verizon to lose $15 a month or $180 a year per customer? Would YOU as business owner willingly lose BILLIONS of dollars just to be nice? If the Verizon CEO did that the shareholders would demand his head.

[#5]

kaybracon wrote:

I know that Verizon could care less if they lose my 5 lines, but maybe if enough people change carriers they'll start taking notice.

Verizon continues to get more new customers than any other carrier their churn  has been around 1% for a long time now which is low. So no Verizon has no motivation to change. Of course if they lose enough customers they'll change ANY and ALL businesses that want to survive change when they have to. Sorry but the customer ISN'T always right. Sure unlimited everything for $30 a month sounds great as a customers. Doesn't mean it's great businesswise. And at the end of the day businesses have to make a profit to continue to exist. That's the way it works under capitalism.

[kaybracon]

A) First of all, the upgrade fee isn't part of the equation.  For an iPhone 5s, you're paying $18.75/month.  And yes, I am complaining about them not lowering my bill by that amount.  That's nearly $60/month for 3 smart phones.  To me, that's a significant amount - significant enough for me to switch carriers.

B) That's simply a business decision for Verizon to make.  Are they going to make enough customers mad with this policy that it will affect their bottom line?  They're losing my business - that's $2760 this coming year.  If 362000 other customers make a similar move, then that's $1 billion Verizon will lose/year. 

But, hey, that's capitalism!

[vzw_customer_support · Accepted solution]

kaybracon,

We definitely don’t want to lose you and I’m happy to clarify the concerns you mentioned. It’s true, on Edge there is a monthly payment on the phone you want, but the upgrade fee does not apply. With Edge, you only have to make the payments on the equipment itself, which is added to your monthly bill. Since it’s not subsidized by us, you don’t have to pay the upgrade fee. http://vz.to/1iFH8kL

However, if the amount of the phone is not within your budget, we’re happy to say you can still do the
normal 2-year agreements without a problem when you are eligible to upgrade. Lastly, if there is no interest in subsidizing a phone or splitting your phone payments over 24 months, you can always pay full retail for the phone at once, provide us with the equipment or use http://vz.to/ZILXBT  .

AdaS_VZW
Follow us on Twitter at @VZWSupport

[Jax_Omen]

It most definitely IS factored into plan costs: all the carriers that subsidize phones are actually required to disclose how much of a subsidy they are baking into their monthly service plans to the government for their taxes. It's something around $16/month for Verizon, on average.

[dirkbonn]

Jax_Omen wrote:

It most definitely IS factored into plan costs: all the carriers that subsidize phones are actually required to disclose how much of a subsidy they are baking into their monthly service plans to the government for their taxes. It's something around $16/month for Verizon, on average.

Where, exactly does this amount show on a Verizon bill?

[Jax_Omen]

Did I say it shows up on a verizon bill? No, I didn't.

When Verizon pays their corporate taxes to the federal government, they are required to disclose it, as is AT&T and Sprint (T-Mobile no longer subsidizes phones).

Make no mistake, you *are* paying for the equipment subsidy in the plan costs. It's up to you whether VzW's superior coverage is worth their higher prices, regardless of subsidy or not.